Sunday check in again. After our failed church attempt last Sunday, I wasn’t about to miss it again. Plus next week is general conference, so we would have skipped regular meetings 3 weeks in a row.

So, we slept in the parking lot. It’s not PC with the church policy, but we’ve had good luck and we try not to abuse it past late Saturday nights. So maybe we are just arriving to church early?

This was especially important because church was at 9am. And we aren’t good at 9am. I woke up at 8. By 8:15 we are still in bed and Deon peeks out the window. No cars. This is unusual because there are usually early meetings on Sundays. Another 15 minutes go by, the 4 big kids are still sleeping and we discussing the possibility that there is no church today. Trying to figure out why. Get ahold of the bishop (this takes a while, since I first direct Deon to call the bishop of some other ward in some other building). 

We get ahold of the bishop at 8:37. Of course there is church! His is driving, almost there! And what a good example we are, getting there early! Uh-huh. We are still in bed, 4 kids still asleep, certainly nobody fed and church starts in 23 minutes. Aaannnddd…we walked in at 9:06. Pretty good if you ask me!

It was a good Sunday at church. We were lucky enough to get an invitation to dinner, and there was a youth fireside Aunica was able to attend.

Directly after church Deon gave the boys haircuts! And I, for the first time, cut hair. I gave Sidda front bangs, and I think she looks so cute.

I don’t have any post haircut pics of Dimitri because he has a hard time with transitions. He wants his hair cut, until its time. Then it’s never what he wants (even when it’s exactly the way he asked for it), and he is angry. No posing for pics. But his cut probably looks the best, he looks so handsome! Look for it in later pics.

In between church and dinner we visited Chesapeake and Ohio Canal national historic park. The kids completed a junior ranger program and we went for a hike. Deon and I got separated (he didn’t fee like waiting for kids to finish their books), and ended up doing different hikes. Since we got a late start, we booked it through the 2 miles. 

We thoroughly enjoyed our dinner with new friends. We are so thankful for people who open their homes and hearts to us. It is always fun to be ther visitor that everyone is excited to meet. We do have quite the story. Aunica also we bubbling about the fireside she attended. Both Deon and I graciously accepted compliments on her behalf today. She may be a little challenging at home, but she remains a perfect peach in public.